Why Would You Come To Home?
By CheekyGuy, HSM team writer
I have been playing (or living) in virtual worlds since 2006, and I’ve been asking myself the reasons for going to these places.
Of course, everybody needs an escape from the norm; an escape from the mundane, the everyday. And yet gaming and movies aren’t always enough to quench our thirst for something of an escape. They’re still passive experiences, after all — the events largely dictated outside of your control.
It seems we don’t want reality. There are too many reality shows on our TV screens. So we moved over to a chatroom. Then the chatroom’s features evolved into emoticons. Then came the 3D chatrooms in which you could see your avatar interacting with another avatar. Then came the virtual worlds that could charm and distract and give every opportunity to explore.
It was inevitable. It was something that was going to happen. It wanted to happen, NEEDED to happen.
And since my foray into Second Life — and now Home — I ask the question: what are the reasons people have for going to such places?
It may have very little to do with gaming, actually.
I’ve met people from all walks of life. I have met single moms and separated fathers, and I have met people with all types of physical disabilities. People that live with depression that say these virtual worlds ease their anxieties.
I have met a lonely widowed woman who rediscovered her sexuality. And I’ve met married women who learn of and experiment with their bisexuality, but only ever ‘inworld’ as they feel that their secret would upset their husbands and families.
I have met a polyamorous woman; she has a belief that she can love more than one man, including her real-world husband, and thus meets virtual boyfriends online. I have met a Wiccan witch that helped me put a spell on my sick mother, to get her through her cancer.
My youngest Second Life daughter — JennyLee — is in real life a man in his early forties; he is university-educated and a working adult who plays as a little girl. He is now looking into a full sex change, as playing on Second Life helped him with his decision. Put your own personal moral compass aside for a moment with what I just wrote. The reality is that this individual broke no laws and was able to come to grips with something he’d been struggling with for decades. I would argue his real life has been improved by his virtual one — and yes, I chose a rather strong example to demonstrate that point.
(No, I’m not suggesting Home allow users to run around as child avatars. Frankly, too many of them are too close to being children in real life. Second Life’s main service is strictly 18-and-up, whereas Home has no such distinction. Also, Home is still a world populated by gamers, after all, and thus has some noticeable differences from other virtual worlds which exist solely unto themselves, rather than as a support tool for something else.)
My biggest breakthrough, personally, is in my online son. In the real world, he had a tormented childhood. He was physically and sexually abused. From that point onward, he has always been cautious and wary of strange men throughout his life. I came along as a careful and gentle friend, and he soon took to me as if I was a real father. I’m just grateful I could help another human being. Life is tough enough as is.
Olivia Allin, in her “Second Chance” article, quoted a fantastic line from Lost Horizon: “Be KIND to one another.”
Please don’t pass judgment on these people, or assume anything salacious. They are not freaks. We are all damaged in some way, and I’m praising virtual worlds like Home for giving us the freedom to safely explore social interactions that help us cope with the real world.
Playing on a virtual world can do so much for so many people.
Lisa22, on Home, tells me, “I come on Home to hang out with my friends. I’m shy and I don’t get out much. My husband, in real life, pays little attention to me and tells me that I am ugly. Here on Home I can be pretty and feel better in myself that I have good friends to help me through all of my confidence issues.”
I never knew that I myself had a different persona until I tried these virtual worlds. You can be anything you want to be and have the freedom to express this. Keara recently wrote a brilliant article on this. And I have to ask: as long as you’re not deceiving anyone or violating any laws, where is the harm in this?
Let’s face it: most of us lead lives that we wish were more exciting. Who doesn’t want to have a life out of an Ian Fleming novel? But the reality is that such lives are rarely had (and usually far more dangerous than glamorous). Home, to me, is a wonderful way to have fun.
Virtual worlds can become a great outlet for friendships to form — perhaps even romance, as documented in Hibana’s remarkable story published on this website over Christmas. To me, I hope to see Sony embrace the social elements of Home as well as its gaming elements; imagine a core client update which gave us new animations and gestures (perhaps as for-purchase extras) to express a greater range of emotions on Home. If you can get virtually married in Japan Home, then why not everywhere else?
These virtual worlds can help people in discovering or rediscovering themselves.
There are some gamers out there that dismiss everything of what Home is about. Or maybe they don’t quite understand exactly what it is, as Home doesnt really advertise itself the way, say, World of Warcraft does.
Virtual worlds, like Home and Second Life — maybe even Kaneva or IMVU as well — are still relatively new, and I’m not sure people are taking to those worlds in the same way people are taking gaming in general. Video games have been around for over thirty years. The culture has had time to adapt. But when it comes to the freedom of virtual worlds, we still — as a culture — haven’t really assimilated and integrated them yet.
There will be a time, in my opinion, when soon it will be commonplace to see a virtual world and become a part of it. With the onset of the 3D revolution we could really experience that world as if we are actually there.
“Tron” — and its sequel — are great movies that talk about virtual worlds; that original movie is more relevant now than it was back then. Imagine a world completely formed, but leaving room for independence — to be shaped by its users.
The PS3 is a powerful console and there is a potential for a fully-realised virtual world or city, inhabited by its players. And, for Sony and other developers, a tremendous amount of money can be generated from fleshing out such an experience. But it requires treating Home as an entity unto itself, instead of as a support tool strictly to help generate sales for video game titles.
Only time will tell if Sony chooses to pursue this strategy. But I can tell you this:
Home could be the beginning of something wonderful. It has the power to help a lot of people deal with what Thoreau referred to as the “quiet desperation” of our lives. It’s so easy, even in this digital age we live in, to decry virtual worlds out of ignorance and say that they’re full of misfits and maladjusted people. The truth, in my view, is far more complex. Whether by design or happy coincidence, Home — a for-profit enterprise designed to support gaming sales — has ended up doing a lot of good for a lot of people.
January 27th, 2011 by CheekyGuy | 13 comments
CheekyGuy is a loveable, mischievous Brit who first entered virtual reality via Second Life, and now frequents Home as a Grey Gamer to keep in touch with friends. In real life, Cheeky is a video editor who has just completed a Master's degree in screenwriting from Liverpool John Moores University.
As proof that home has something,maybe unidentifyable,going 4 it i submit this growing group of naysayers.I have atm 4or5 friends ive met on my few min. of black-ops that i play here and there,that i told about home.After 3or4 visits 2 home they say”i dont get it”yet they keep coming back.I try 2 explain things as best i can but its like explaining the taste of sugar 2 some1 that hasn’t,and has never had,the ability of taste.Yet they return,without being able 2 identify it or have it adequetely explained 2 them,they recognize that there is something special here.
Excellent read.
This is a brilliant article.
I was chatting with a couple of friends at Home’s Gamer Lounge, and an interesting question came up:
Are you in Home because you’re running *to* something, or running *from* something?
It really made me stop and think.
I personally have a pretty fulfilling life. So I *think* I’m running TO something with Home. Namely, social interaction with people who are on my wavelength (or, in the case of the HSM team, people who are way smarter than me).
But, if I’m honest, I know that I’m running *from* something as well: my socially awkward formative years in which I was physically unattractive, acne-riddled, and hopelessly inept with social interaction (not that much has changed, perhaps). It doesn’t matter that that was fifteen years ago; it still haunts me.
And so it really does rattle around in my head: with Home, are we running to something or from something? There is a subtle but distinct difference.
There’s no doubt that there are a lot of people, as Cheeky outlined in this article, who are running *from* something. And thus virtual worlds, like Home, are more than just games — they’re therapy.
Stryctnin published a Tetris review a while back in which he pointed out that war veterans are sometimes given Tetris to help their brains cope with the stresses of what they’ve witnessed. Contrary to the (erroneous) belief that there’s a correlation between video games and violent behavior, games actually *help* people become whole again.
I would posit that Home does much the same.
Once our society and culture has had a chance to really assimilate and adapt to virtual reality as an everyday facet of modern living, I think a lot of the social stigmas presently attached to it (which are already cliche) will largely disappear.
(This topic may need to be fleshed out into a full article, actually. Anyone on the team want to jump on it?)
Cheeky, thank you for an outstanding article.
Completely fascinating article. You have given voice to a lot of things I have wondered about in Home. Congratulations on being able to draw people out and help them help themselves.
This may be something worth viewing to research such topic: http://www.hulu.com/watch/210521/almost-real-connecting-in-a-wired-world
I’m just running. Whether its to or from or no where at all. I am running and dancing and popping in and out of places that amaze me. Someday I run away. someday towards. Some days I sit and watch others run and wonder where they are going. Most of the time in real life I am not up to running, or just tired of running. I have to run the direction that gets me to where I’m going or need to be. On Home I just run free. And I seem to have just run the running metaphor into the ground… sorry.
This might be hard to believe, but Nos came to Home in hopes of making a friend or two.
Making us what?
Breakfast?
I want BACON (and some waffles, plz)
Incredible read Cheeky. I knew you could do this, you are a great author. I am glad you got to voice this and show people that Home is more than just a place to game. This is something that Sony needs to recognize and soon. They have a virtual gold mine in this place and they need to address the people who butter their bread for them. Home is a society made up of people from every walk of life, and like any society it has it’s good and bad. We need to see that we ourselves are responsible to make it a better place for others and just be there for them as you have been for your “son”. I am so glad you wrote this article. Your friend Burbie52
I believe its possible 2 start out running from something but then,finding something 2 your liking along the way,switch 2 running 2 something.Totally agree with cheeky about role-playing being fine as long as no 1 is being maliciously deceived or breaking any laws.I have no doubts that role playing has benefits,its an outlet 4 ones creativity and a virtual world provides a safe place 4 this and the exploration of many different ideas that might not b adviseable 2 undertake in the real world.
Awesome job on writing this Cheeky….I know the running feeling